How to Find a Good Accountant for Your Small Business or Home Business?

When you start your business, your cash flows will be such that you can handle all the accounts related stuff yourself. But as your business grows, your cash flows, profits and losses will increase too. You will have to keep an account of these on a daily basis. You will also need to have a financial statement at the end of the month. All this requires a dedicated person who can handle this stuff without making any mistakes. All this information is crucial when you are filing your taxes. During an audit too, this information comes handy.

What does an accountant do?

These are some of the basic stuff that your accountant would handle which would make your job easier.

• Maintain your daily cash flows

• Maintain your monthly financial statements

• Help you with tax preparation

• Helps you in the tax filing process

• Helps you with the process of getting your returns from the IRS

• Provides you with tax information and gives ideas for saving/reducing your taxes

• Helps in filing your taxes online

Should you hire a Consultant or a full time accountant?

Since your cash flows are not very huge throughout the year, you might not want to hire an accountant for the whole year. Hiring an accountant in Tampa, Los Angeles or Seattle might be a costly affair, since you will have to provide all the employee benefits to that person. In such cases, you can opt to hire an accountant as a consultant. The hired accountant will take care of your monthly cash flows, financial statement, tax filing and returns.

But, as you grow with your business, so does your financial information. So, if you can afford to hire an accountant all throughout the year, it could turn out to be beneficial too.

Accuracy: A good accountant is a one who has an eye for details and accuracy. Since he/she will be dealing with your cash, it is very important that the person does the work to the highest level of accuracy. An eye to minute details is a requirement of a good accountant. Look for the following in the accountant before you zero down on hiring them.

Punctuality: A good accountant should be punctual in his/her work. Generating financial statements on a monthly basis, tax preparation and filing, checking for the returns, etc. are some key jobs that the accountant has to handle. In all these scenarios, it is important that the accountant finishes his work on time. Hence look for this quality too while looking for an accountant.

Sincerity: there is no bargain on this one. You are entrusting the responsivity of your business finances to this person. Make sure that the person is trustworthy. Also, do a thorough back-ground check of the person whom you are planning to hire. In such cases, a word of mouth from some acquaintances might be of great help.

Experience: You get many first time accountants for lesser prices. But, it is always better to hire someone with experience. Handling tax returns and dealing with the IRS require experience. It is even better if you could hire someone who has handled similar businesses. The experience that the accountant would get to your business would help solve some financial problems that you could face. Also, an experienced accountant can give you many options available to save and reduce your taxes.

License: It is required to check if the accountant you are hiring has the required qualifications to handle your finances. Check for the valid license. The accountant or the agency with which you are dealing should be registered. This ensures that your money is handled by safe hands.